Crown Series Bellerive Regatta - Dramatic moments on final day

by Peter Campbell on 24 Feb 2013 Crown Series Bellerive Regatta 2013, Tasmania's biggest annual keelboat and dinghy regatta, final day was held on the River Derwent today, Sunday 24th February. Prominent Hobart yachtsman Scott Brain added another impressive victory to his long sailing career when he convincingly won the Tasmanian championship in the high performance SB20 sports boat class.

The popular one-design SB20s held their State championship as part of the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta on the River Derwent over the weekend.

The fleet of more than 180 keelboats, sports boats, trailable yachts and off-the-beach dinghies and catamarans enjoyed near perfect sailing conditions, although freshening hot northerly winds, gusting to 25 and 30 knots,this afternoon saw the yacht, Silicon Ship, and the I550 sports boat, Shazza, dismasted.

In another incident, bowman Gemma Miencke in the all-women SB20, Sudden Impulse, fell overboard as the boat broached when a 25 knot gust hit just after the crew gybed the spinnaker.

'Things were a bit hairy for a moment as Gemma had a line around her ankle and she was caught under the stern of the boat, and I could not slow down the boat,' skipper Colleen Darcey said back at Bellerive Yacht Club. 'Eventually she let go, we got the kite down, sailed back and got her back on board.'

Sailing the appropriately named Brainwave, Scott Brain won five of the seven races over the weekend, taking the SB20 title from David Graney, helming Wedgewood. Third place went to Wicked (Andrew Blakney).

Scott Brain is best known as the helmsman of Sally Rattle’s ocean racing yacht Archie in its Melbourne to Hobart and Bruny Island race wins and also as coach of the Tasmanian crew that won the Australian women’s keelboat regatta in Melbourne last year. This is only the second season in SB20 class for the Derwent Sailing Squadron member.

The Trailable Yacht and Sports Boat classes also ran their Tasmanian championships as part of the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta, Sam Edmunds having a clean sweep in the Sports Boat title with his Shaw 650 from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club.

Northern boats also dominated the Trailable Yacht championship with the TS18 Kari (Richard Grant) from the Tamar Yacht Club winning by one point from Wynyard Yacht Club’s More Mischief (Mike Darby), a TS16.

Bellerive Yacht Club members dominated keelboat results with Invincible (Darren Clark) taking out Group 1 AMS and IRC overall and Host Plus Execuive (Jeff Cordell) winning the PHS category. Host Plus Executive (Jeff Cordell) finished third in AMS.

In AMS, Invincible won six of the seven races on corrected time to finish with eight points, ten clear of Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania rival Intrigue (Don Calvert). In IRC, Invincible won five races to finish two points clear of Intrigue with the Farr 40 War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith) third on 26 points.

The winner of Group 2 was decided on a countback of placings, with Trouble (Dave Willans) winning from Hot August Night (Nat Morgan) from the Derwent Sailing Squadron.

Performance Cruising overall results were delayed until a rules mediation hearing was held, confirming Wings Three (Peter Haros) as overall winner, just one point ahead of Pirates Pride (Peter Masteron) and another two points to Red Jacket (Ambrose Coad).

AMS results for the Performance Cruising division changed as a result of Prion (Rod Viney) accepting a 25% of placings penalty over a port-and-starboard incident in race five. This dropped Prion from first to third overall, with Wings Three moving to number one, two points ahead of Planet X (X Rowley) which won the last race.

Cruising Red went to Alumination, Ian Brett’s unpainted aluminium-hulled yacht, four points clear of Steve Mannering’s Zeston 40, Camelot Way, with Temeraire IV (Rick Ware) taking third place despite a spectacular broach and spinnaker flagging incident.

BYC member and retired boat-builder, Rob Laughlin, had a double honour in the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta. Sailing his rebuilt Thunderbird class yacht Piya, he won Performance Cruising 3 by two points from Combank (Craig Escott) and Free ‘n Easy (Bob Jones).

The Bellerive Regatta Association then awarded him the Don Rust Memorial Trophy for a noted performance in the Regatta.

The new Production Cruising division went tot Birngana (Ernest Taggett) by just one point from Michelle (Dave Creese) with another point to third placegetter, Pretty Woman (Brian Watchorn).

The Cruising non-spinnaker division drew a strong fleet, with another Thunderbird, sailed by Bernard Chernery, winning four of the five races to comfortably take the series from Tanangau (David Paine), with two points to Sundance (Don Bailey).